Lives of Girls and Women

Del Jordan wants sex, knowledge and a larger life than her small town can provide. Del Jordan grows up on the Flats Road near Jubilee, Ontario, during and after the Second World War. Childhood means frogs, songs, family stories, her eccentric Uncle Benny, her mother's ambitions, church, school, gossip, fear and desire. As Del moves toward adolescence, she becomes impatient for the larger life she sees in books, films, and the world beyond her small town. Munro follows her through, first love, loss and the daily dramas that make girlhood both comic and dangerous. Alice Munro's only novel is essential literary fiction for readers interested in coming-of-age novels, adolescence, mothers and daughters, female desire and the awkward beginning of self-knowledge. 'Superb' Independent 'Exact and unflinching' Guardian 'In Munro's work, nothing can be predicted. Emotions erupt. Preconceptions crumble. Surprises proliferate' Margaret Atwood